"I helped turn the thing you left for dead": Sam Altman reacts after Elon Musk claims OpenAI CEO "stole a non-profit"

The online verbal clash between Tesla founder Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is not new. Altman's recent comments on Elon Musk's much-awaited Roadster car renewed the spat between the two. For context, Musk first announced the second-generation Tesla Roadster in 2017, but the launch has been repeatedly delayed.

On October 31 X post, Altman said he had reserved a Roadster in 2018 but canceled the order after a seven and half year long wait. He claimed that he never received a refund. Sam Altman also appended three screenshots in his post, supporting his claims. He commented on his own post and wrote,

"I really was excited for the car! And I understand delays. But 7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait."

Sam Altman and Elon Musk cofounded OpenAI in 2015 as a non-profit. In 2017 the idea was proposed to make the company for-profit to raise more working capital. Over some direction and control conflicts, Musk separated himself from OpenAI in 2018. Since then, Musk has taken swipes at Altman and OpenAI on several occasions.

Responding to Altman’s complaint about the Roadster refund, Elon Musk shot back.

"You stole a non-profit," he tweeted.

In a separate tweet, he noted that Altman received his refund within 24 hours. Sam Altman also responded to Musk's accusation, writing,

"I helped turn the thing you left for dead into what should be the largest non-profit ever. You know as well as anyone a structure like what OpenAI has now is required to make that happen."

Continuing the thread, Sam Altman accused the billionaire of attempting to take over OpenAI. Altman also asked xAI's founder to "move on" when he too had an AI company.

"You also wanted Tesla to take over OpenAI, no nonprofit at all. And you said we had a 0% of success. Now you have a great AI company and so do we. Can't we all just move on?" Altman wrote.

---

Other times when Elon Musk took a shot at Sam Altman

After stepping down from the board of OpenAI, Elon Musk has publicly slammed the AI company and Sam Altman. The xAI founder also filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for abandoning the founding mission of the company.

"This case is filed to compel OpenAI to adhere to the Founding Agreement and return to its mission to develop AGI for the benefit of humanity, not to personally benefit the individual Defendants," the case filing read.

In July, a user posted a video sharing Altman's "past." Musk responded to the post and accused Sam Altman of inverting OpenAI's "mission."

"Altman cannot be trusted. He inverted the mission of OpenAI from a non-profit, open source AI company to a closed source, maximum-profit AI company. Deception," Musk wrote.

On October 28, OpenAI completed the process of establishing the for-profit arm of the company. As per Forbes, the for-profit vertical was valued at $500 billion. As a part of restructuring, the OpenAI non-profit foundation was left with 26% ownership of the for-profit arm.

Following the restructuring, a user tweeted that Sam Altman still has zero shares in the company. Elon Musk reacted to the post and alleged that OpenAI's CEO has planned to receive money in the form of stocks.

"Altman took a piece of almost every successful company that wanted a relationship with OpenAI (YC Combinator playbook). His stakes in those companies are worth tens of billions. Moreover, he is just waiting for my lawsuit against OpenAI to be over to receive the same $30B or so in stock that Brockman was given," Musk alleged.

---

Altman's post about not receiving a refund against cancellation of the Roadster renewed the feud. On the same day, Joe Rogan aired Elon Musk's interview on his podcast, wherein the Tesla CEO claimed that Roadster is expected to hit the mark before the end of this year.

Edited by Anuj Singh Kushwaha